Gov't v. Soto
| Decision Date | 29 November 1920 |
| Docket Number | Criminal Case No. 11 - 1920 |
| Parties | GOVERNMENT v. JOSE SOTO and JOSE LOPEZ |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Virgin Islands |
Same case on appeal, see p. 536, this volume
Petition for habeas corpus after reversal on appeal,
see p. 21, this volume Prosecution for murder and assault. The District Court, Thiele, J., appointed four co-Judges, or lay-Judges, to try the case with him, in accordance with Chr. V Danish Law, book 1, ch. 5, § 19 and Ordinance of June 3, 1796, sec. 24, namely, Rudolph Muller, J. E. Kuntz, Warren S. Lee, and E. D. Boardman. The defendants were tried together, and Judge Thiele instructed the co-Judges regarding the law governing the case. The judges unanimously found defendant Lopez guilty of murder and sentenced him to death, and found defendant Soto guilty of being an accomplice and sentenced him to imprisonment for six years in the penitentiary.
GEORGE A. KEYSER, Government Attorney, for the Government
LEO F. S. HORAN, for defendants
On September 9th this year about 10:40 p.m. the St. Thomas Police heard a distress signal from the AmericanS/S Polar Star lying at West India Company's dock in St. Thomas Harbor. When the police shortly after arrived on board they found a man lying dead in the firemen's mess-room aft and another man on the deck wounded. The dead man, a fireman of said ship by the name of E. J. Dougherty or William Dougherty or William Doherty, hereafter called Dougherty, had a deep incised wound on the left chest, which wound apparently had caused instantaneous death. The body was still warm. The other man, a fireman of the ship by name of Patrick Joseph Donahue, was badly cut up and bleeding from several wounds. An autopsy was performed on Dougherty's body the following day, the result of which shows that his death was caused by a stab in the anterior left chest puncturing the left pleura and opening the pulmonary vein about one inch from the heart. Donahue was treated at the Municipal Hospital, where he was found to have a stabbed wound over the left clavicle; and a stabbed wound below the left clavicle. He also had a stabbed wound to the left eye, rupturing the eyeball which would have to be removed. At the arrival of the police, the crew of the ship explained that the killing of Dougherty and wounding of Donahue was committed by two coal passers from the ship, who, however, had escaped. The said two coal passers, viz: Jose Soto, a Chilian, about 24 years old, and Jose Lopez, a Spaniard, about 24 years old, were found and arrested, Soto the following day and Lopez on Saturday the 11th September. They have explained before the Court that they came on board drunk Thursday night September 9th and that they are unable to remember what took place on board the ship said night, but by the explanations given by the several witnesses, it has been proven to our satisfaction that Soto and Lopez when they came on board Thursday night were not so intoxicated but that theywere perfectly aware of what they were doing. It has further been proven that they went down into the firemen's mess-room, where a quarrel arose between them and Donahue and Dougherty; that neither Donahue nor Dougherty was armed, but that Soto and Lopez had a long kitchen or butcher's knife which it seems that Soto fetched during the quarrel. It has also been proven that they dared each other to fight and they all four finally got up from where they...
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Soto v. United States
...of murder and sentenced to death, and defendant Soto was found guilty of being an accomplice and sentenced to imprisonment for six years (1 V.I. 8). Defendants appealed. The Circuit Court of Appeals held that constitutional guaranties of a natural or personal nature applied to the Virgin Is......